The acceleration establishes itself as a central quantity for the control of the vehicle longitudinal movement in networked drive systems. Applications such as vehicle speed control or drive dynamic control utilize already an acceleration input. The acceleration input by the driver via a conventional accelerator pedal is problematic in that the rest position of the accelerator pedal as well as the upper stop of the accelerator pedal cannot be clearly assigned to an acceleration input without a lost motion occurring, that is, a pedal travel without effect on the engine from the pedal rest position or a dead path arising, that is, a pedal travel without further action upon propulsion in the upper pedal region. Lost motion or dead path are experienced as uncomfortable by the driver. The following example will make this subject matter clear.
The acceleration input via the accelerator pedal is linearly interpolated from the position 0 starting with the value 0 m/s2 up to the upper pedal stop at the value 4 m/s2. For the description of the lost motion, it is assumed that the vehicle is accelerated downhill by the gravitational force, for example, at 0.8 m/s2. This means that the driver must move the accelerator pedal up to the angle to which 0.8 m/s2 is assigned before a vehicle reaction occurs. With respect to the dead path, it is assumed that the vehicle is braked uphill by the gravitational force, for example, likewise at 0.8 m/s2. Because of this, the vehicle can achieve no acceleration of 4 m/s2 at maximum engine power; rather, only a value of 3.2 m/s2 can be reached. This means that the driver does not perceive any further vehicle reaction starting from the pedal angle to which 3.2 m/s2 is assigned.